In 1892 Maria had already headed to the USA where her aunt, uncle and cousins, the Dante clan, had already started their new lives as fruiters in Rhode Idsland.

Maria Domenica it is now known emigrated in the year 1895. The 1930 Census of the USA shows us the immigration year in the third column from the right.

1930 USA Census showing Maria as first arriving in 1895

1930 census

Emilio Quilietti, the eldest of the family in the ITALIAN ARMY 1885. Emilio is the' father' of the family in Scotland.

There is much mystery surrounding Maria. From documents we can easily find today we know that Maria had gone back home toItaly where on 19th February 1903 she gave birth to a daughter who was baptised Eletta Quilietti [Giuglietti]. Her older brother Giuseppe [Joe] was her sponsor. The Church archives give us this information.

Maria Domenica or Ellen as she was known. She was the daughter or Maria Domenica Quilietti and was born in 1903 in Italy. There is much suspense as to who her father was but we know that her uncle Giulseppe was her sponser in Italy. She went on to marry Louis Peter Pelligrini whose family were also from Castelvecchio Pascoli

Then again she left for America in 1904 after the death of her father and joined her sister Ermenia in Rhode Island.

The Quilietti house in Castelvecchio. now gone.

Her sister Ermenia had by now married her first cousin Pietro Dante in Rhode Island and had settled very well over there. On their arrival in the USA Ermenia and Peter took the baby Eletta and brought her up as their own. The Church would frown on the circumstances of the birth of the baby Ellen as she was unmarried at the time and this adoption would not only help the child but also Maria who could start afresh.

Brother Joe also in the Italian Army. He was baby's Ellen's sponsor at her baptism in Castelvecchio.

This left Maria free to start a new life and in 1905 she married Alfredo Benabio, also of Italian descent. Alfred was born in the year 1874 and had also arrived from Italy with his parents in the 1880s.

The children came along, and we are unsure of course if she did she let her daughter Ellen know of her true parentage, or if it was kept from her until Ellen herself was of age to marry.

Their children were

JOSEPH BENABIO 1906-18 Jan. 1952 – he may have married Olive Fallows 1917-1934.

ROSE BENABIO 1908. She married into the Squirolloni family in 1930.

CHARLES BENABIO was born on 13 December 1909. He married Margaret m.s. unknown in 1929. Charles died in the June 1972. He had one son also called Charles who was born in 1938. There may have been another wife Doris who was born on 11th April 1913 and who died on 8th March 2003. We do not know if they had any children.

AUGUST BENABIO was born in 1911. He died on13 Sept. 1985. He married Margaret McGinn and they had two sons and one daughter, Robert, Richard and Judith who died in 1982. The family lived in Sharon Avenue in Pawtucket where they had a business called Gus’s Garage. There are other members of this family who are Tracie who was born in 1970 and Richard who was born in 1971.

AMELIA BENABIO was born on 7th february 1915. She died in September 1969. We do not know if she ever married

MARY BENABIO was born on 4th April 1916. She died on 22nd October 1998. We have no further information about Mary.

The 'Don' translating the Archives in Castelvecchio

Olive Benabio was a sister-in law but we are unsure of who her husband was perhaps it was Joseph.

The family have a family plot in Mt. St. Mary’s Cemetery Plot 104 No. 6 where lie the remains of Judith, Olive, Alfred and Margaret. Margaret is the owner of the plot.

Mary Domenica and her husband Alfredo are

buried in the old graveyard in Pawtucket, East Providence side of the city.

The family was large which is really brilliant for us here in Scotland. Perhaps they would like to share in our unique and very special family history.

It would be really great to hear from any of Maria Domenica’s descendents. Maria was the youngest of the Quilietti children and may have passed on vital information regarding the lives of her parents in Italy. Please be in touch if you wish to help us sort out this part of our Quilietti history.

By 1940 Mary lived with her son Joseph. He was an employer of a retail grocery business in Rhode Island. Their address was 42 Sharon Avenue

Slater Mil

Slater Mill Historic Site, also known as Slater Mill or Old Slater Mill, is located on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, RI. It is generally cited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America. It is modeled after a mill in England where Samuel Slater, the mill’s founder, had been an employee. Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, Brown family was one of the major owners of the Mill.

Slater Mill was built in 1793. It served as the first commercially viable cotton-spinning mill in the United States. It was used to convert raw cotton into cloth. Slater brought this new technology from England where he had learned it from Jedediah Strutt. Slater’s design was based on Richard Arkwright’s cotton spinning system which included carding, drawing, and spinning machines.